1. Create a Background

Step 1

Step 2

2. Drawing a Light Source

Step 1

For a complex looking light source, we’re going to need multiple shades to blend. First, draw a perfect circle with the Ellipse tool at about 185px by 185px. Then give it a nice orange color and apply a 40px Blur.

Step 2

Next, draw another perfect circle at about 125px by 125px, give it a yellow color, and apply a 20px Blur. Position it over the orange circle also (use Object > Align and Distribute to be precise).

Step 3

Now we need the white hot center. Let’s do another circle at 105px by 105px, white, and a 20px Blur.

Step 4

Finally, let’s add some flare. Grab your Polygon tool and draw a star with 12 Corners and a 0.110 Spoke ratio. Also, instead of just white, let’s do a radial gradient with white in the center, but then fades out to a complete transparency on the outside.

3. Draw a Reflective Droplet

Step 1

Now that we have a light source, we should add a subject to receive this light – such as a water droplet. Go ahead and draw an ellipse like I have below.

Step 2

Now edit those nodes into a droplet shape, such as below.

Step 3

We need to add a radial gradient to this droplet, but the colors will be a bit tricky. You’ll want colors similar to the light source since this is a reflection, so I’ll just list what I ended up using below.

R: 255 G: 255 B: 255 A: 255

R: 255 G: 201 B: 52 A: 178

R: 255 G: 154 B: 0 A: 84

R: 0 G: 0 B: 0 A: 0

R: 0 G: 0 B: 0 A: 255

Step 4

To create a glare for our droplet, duplicate the droplet and stretch one out as I have it below.

Step 5

Now just place them on top one another like I have them below, select them both, and head up to Path > Difference.

Step 6

You’ll end up with a perfect sliver to use as a glare. Apply the same radial gradient we used for the droplet and position it like I have it below.

Step 7

Finally, apply a 10px Blur to blend it in some more. You should have something like this so far.

4. Draw a Reflective Shadow

Step 1

Now we need to add a shadow to our droplet. To do this, let’s duplicate the droplet again and flip it vertically.

Step 2

Then just put them in position, select them, and Path > Difference to get our shadow object.

Step 3

Position the shadow object under the droplet (again, you can use Align and Distribute).

Step 4

Finally, apply that same radial gradient we’ve been using, position it like I have it below, and you should have a neat looking shadow for the droplet.

Step 5

For a final touch, I added a really small white stroke on the droplet to highlight it some more. With everything else in place, you should have ended up with a cool scene with pretty accurate, realistic lighting!

That’s The End!

We learned a lot about blending certain colors and using some pretty advanced gradients to create some realistic lighting. Our end result turned out pretty good! Hopefully some of these techniques will “shed some light” on your designs. Thanks for reading!

About The Author

Aaron Nieze

Improve how you draw light interacting with your subjects in inkscape with this article. The author covers the basics of making your lighting more realistic , including shadows, highlights and how light is reflected onto other objects.